uarc00970 Izaak Maurits Kolthoff papers,
1926-1994University Archives staff; updated
by Katie ChristianUniversity of Minnesota
LibrariesJune 2006University of Minnesota LibrariesMinneapolis, MN 55455EAD encoding by Katie Christian, updated by Susan Hoffman
June 2006; June 2008, July, 2014Finding
aid written in EnglishUniversity of
Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc]Kolthoff, I. M. (Izaak Maurits),
1894-1993Izaak Maurits Kolthoff
papers1926-19948 boxes (7.5
cubic feet)This collection
contains the papers of Izaak Kolthoff, professor and head of the Division of
Analytical Chemistry at the University of Minnesota.uarc 970Collection materials in English,
French and German
Administrative Information
Use of Materials

Items in this collection do not circulate and may be used in-house
only.

Copyright

Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provision
of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). Requests to publish should be
arranged with the University of Minnesota Archives.

Preferred citation

Izaak Kolthoff papers, University Archives, University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities.

Source of acquisition

Part of the collection was deposited by the Chemistry Department
between 1984 and 1994.

Awards and citations were deposited by the Chemistry Department in
2014.

Scope and Content

This collection spans Dr. Kolthoff's career, from his early days at
the University of Utrecht until his death. Much of the collection consists of
correspondence with people and organizations. Other materials include
biographical information, publications, scrapbooks with awards, photographs,
articles, and letters.

Biographical Sketch of Izaak Maurits Kolthoff (1894-1993)

Izaak Maurits Kolthoff, Ph.D. (1918) University of Utrecht. Professor
and head, Division of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Minnesota
(1927-1962). Internationally known pioneer and researcher in the field of
analytical chemistry, with concentrations in potentiometry, conductomerty,
polarography, and the formation and properties of precipitates.

Izaak Kolthoff was born in Almelo, Holland on February 11, 1894. He
studied under Professor Nicholas Schoorl at the University of Utrect, earning
his Ph.D. in pharmacy and chemistry in 1918. Although Schoorl was himself a
Professor of Pharmacy, it was he who drew Kolthoff's attention to early papers
in electro-analytical chemistry and coprecipitation and advised Kolthoff to
study analytical chemistry from a scientific perspective, rather than as an
empirical art. Kolthoff served as conservator of the Pharmaceutical Institute
at the University of Utrecht from 1917-1927. He was appointed as professor and
head of the Division of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Minnesota in
1927, a position he held until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1962.
After his retirement, he remained active as a researcher until the late 1980s.

Kolthoff was best known as the father of analytical chemistry. His
research dealt with analytical and physical chemistry. His main research topics
included potentimetry, conductometry, polarography, theory and application of
indicators, acid-base equilibria and titrations in aqueous and non-aqueous
media, formation, properties and aging of precipitates, adsorption,
coprecipitation, post-precipitation, and induced reactions. He is also credited
in development of the polarograph, an instrument for recording polarization of
electrolytes. During World War II he served as chairman of the Committee on
Analytical research Methods and supervisor of three research projects for the
U.S. Government on synethic or "cold process" rubber.

Always a political and social justice activist, in the early 1950s
Kolthoff got into trouble with the Un-American Activities Committee after
criticizing Senator Joseph McCarthy's persecution of perceived communists.
According to the committee, Kolthoff belonged to thirty-two subversive
organizations; however, no action was taken against him.

Kolthoff was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary member of the American
Pharmaceutical Association, and an honorary member of eight foreign chemical
societies. He received Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University
of Chicago (1955), the University of Groningen (1964), Brandeis University
(1974), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1975). In 1947 the Netherlands
Government knighted him a Commander in the Order of Oranje-Nassau. He was the
recipient of many awards and medals, including the Robert Boyle Medal from the
Royal Society of Chemistry in England. In honor of his eightieth birthday, the
Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society sponsored the
I. M. Kolthoff 80th Anniversary Symposium. He is the author or co-author of
nine books and some 900 publications; he is one of the two editors of the
multi-volume Treatise on Analytical Chemistry.

In 1972, the Regents of the University of Minnesota named the new
chemistry research building Kolthoff Hall in his honor. In 1979, the faculty of
the Department of Chemistry established the Kolthoff Lectureship. Kolthoff
never married, and lived most of his life a few blocks from the Chemistry
building, first on the 6th floor of the Campus Club in Coffman Union and then
in a Comstock Hall apartment. Long after his official retirement, he spent his
days in his office, working with his lab assistant since 1955, Miron Chantooni.
He died at the age of 99 on March 4, 1993.

Related Material in University of Minnesota Archives

Department of Chemistry records

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog
of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about
related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these
headings.

Biographical Who's Who, 1973-1986.3Biography, 1964-1984.4Research, Grants Air Force Office of Scientific Research. 24 foldersDepartment of Health, Education, and Welfare,
1949-1975.22 foldersDepartment of Health, Education and Welfare,
1974-1980.2Hill Family Foundation, 1955-1970.2National Science Foundation, 1940s-1980s.29 foldersOffice of Ordnance Research, 1952-1960.2The Petroleum Research Fund, 1962-1982.22 foldersResearch Corporation, 1954-1955.2Rubber research including rubber cards, 1942-1944.3National Research Council Evaluation Panel, 1975-1977.3Joint Application to NSF, H.S. Swofford and I.M.
Kolthoff, 1978.4NSF Grant 5495 Budget, 1984.4Manuscripts, Reprints, and SpeechesBibliography, undated.2"Aims and Objectives Analytical Chemistry," undated.2"Analytical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis,"
1967.2"Analytical Chemistry in the USA in the First Quarter of
this Century," undated.2"The Development of Analytical Chemistry as a Science,"
1979.2Lectures, 1976.2"The National Science Foundation," undated.2Olin Palladium Medal Address, undated.2"The Place of Instrumental Methods in Analytical
Curricula,"undated.2Miscellaneous English and Foreign Language
reprints.2"Science and its Relation to Culture," undated.3"Some Concluding Remarks," undated.3"Some Personal Annotations on the Impact of
Non-analytical Chemists on the Development of Analytical Chemistry as a
Science," undated.3"Status of Analytical Chemistry at the End of the 19th
Century," undated.3Journal of Solution
Chemistry,1986-1988.33 foldersReprints, 1927-1928.3

Most of the reprints are in languages other than English.

Articles on analytical chemistry by and about
Kolthoff,1948-1994.3Papers,1938-1939.3

Contains the manuscript of the
Report on the Application of Polarized Electrodes to the
Study of Cancer by Kolfhoff and J.J. Lingane.